Tools Featured in this Teardown

Video Overview

Learn how to repair your PlayStation 4 Pro with this video overview.

Introduction

The world of video game platforms has been changing quickly. Manufacturers have resorted to mid-gen refreshes to keep up with 4K TVs and VR headsets. Last month we tore apart the PS4 Slim, and now we're tackling the third iteration of this generation. We may be amateur gamers, but we're revved up to tear the PlayStation 4 Pro down, professionally.

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This triple-decker design is a little different from the ''first'' fourth PlayStation we tore down, but that doesn't stop our teardown engineers—without wasting time, we flip the console over, pop the first panel, and hit pay dirt!

A single, standard Phillips #0 screw stands between us and hard-drive-swapping glory. Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Replacements are awesome, and in keeping with a long tradition: every PlayStation to use a hard drive has had a user-replaceable hard drive.

Replacing the internal hard drive doesn't break warranty and it gives the users the option to cheaply upgrade to a larger drive or maybe even go with a SSD drive to take advantage of the SATA3 controller in PS4 Pro. If a SSD is to expensive, there are SSHD options, eg. like the new Seagate Firecuda 2TB SSHD.

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While the PlayStation team boasted about the Pro's SATA III support, this stock hard disk drive is rated at 3.0 Gb/s (SATA II).

Or is it? According to variousonlinesources, this guy is actually a 6.0 Gb/s HDD. Regardless, at 5400 RPM this platter drive will never reach SATA III speeds and is pretty similar to the drive we found in 2013.

No worries, though—armed with the right tools and some elbow grease (and a snazzy new 6.0 Gb/s SSD), you can cut your lag load times in half and get back to gaming.

And now for the million dollar question: Why is this console so much bigger than the original?

For comparison purposes, we lined up the PSU from the PS4 Pro (left) and the original PS4 (right). While there's only an 74.2 g difference between the two units, the requisite heat pipe and fan add a bit more bulk to the Pro to wick away excess heat generated by the additional GPU.

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Thwarted by the lack of any more screw heads on the PSU-side of the PS4 Pro, we flip it back over and flip our attention to the the motherboard.

Burrowing through a layer of shielding behind the CPU reveals this cool X-shaped retaining bracket, similar to ones we found in another console.

And directly underneath it, we dig up a plastic-and-metal cover that looks to be the consumer electronics version of a pizza saver, protecting the back of the board from the heat sink retaining bracket.

Lifting the motherboard reveals a lot more thermal management. Highlights include a giant copper heat sink and dedicated pads for six chips on the motherboard.

@charls yes. if you look on the metal plate, there’s a thin metal strip that pads adhere too. i’ll be doing a breakdown this weekend to upgrade the paste and pads, but the pads on the fairchilds are different than the gddr5 pads. likely i’ll replace all of them with the fujipoly 17w/mk, assuming they are also 1mm, but the fairchild pads may already be a quality material

This should also put to rest anyone who took Cerny's "mirrored GPU" comment too literally and thought there were two separate GPUs in there. Obviously it was meant to simplify doubling the compute units within one larger GPU.

You can likely get a 4TB in there being its so big . They said no way with the original OG thick ps4 and I did it in 30 -40 minutes start to finish with no cutting or drilling. Just finesse and patience. And a couple loosened screws. Just dump the drive caddy...and work that b*tch in there...baby steps...

You can insert a brand new, unformatted drive and it will format the drive just fine. You will need to get the *FULL* firmware (~900 MB) from Sony's system update webpage, not the smaller delta update which is ~320 MB in size. Once the new drive is installed, you put the flash drive on the rear port (unless you have an ultra thin one that can fit into the obnoxiously recessed front ports), turn the PS4 Pro on, and follow the on-screen instructions.

Installation takes ~20 minutes for a fresh HD. Shave a few minutes off for SSDs.

Back in 2013, a lot of PS4 owners say the PS4 is to noisy. This was with the 90mm Delta with a motor with much smaller power consumption. The fan of the PS4 Pro is not much bigger in millimetres. But it can use about the double of power. This means the fan speed can go up much higher even the noise.

Would the people send the PS4 Pro back this time for the noise? Because it makes no sense. Lower fan noise with the same fan model means lower rotation speed too. And finally it means hotter chips and a higher risk of damage.

If you see the heatsink of the Pro and compare it to the normal PS4, you will see it is not much bigger than before. So you will need more airflow to cool the APU chip this time. The TDP is rising significant.

This thoughts are made in parallel with computer hardware and the cooling of this. An actual graphics card has a bigger heatsink than the PS4 Pro on the same TDP.

I haven't noticed any more noise than the PS4 or the PS4 Slim. In fact, the only people I have ever heard complain about noise from fans on any PS were people that don't regularly clean/dust or vacuum. Last buddy that was complaining about noise from PS3 fan, when I opened it for him, it looked like it had hit a cat on the freeway going 60mph.

Regarding the fan in the ps4pro, the genius of the removable top cover is that you can go topless , (lol)and not void the warranty, and place a screen guard over the fan opening thus allow alot more cooling air to flow over the Heatsink.

more air = less noise (generally)

the ps4pro at idle in a 20c room is whisper quiet.(and is quiet using it) So if you have the ps4pro in a hot room (80f) and you noticed that it was noisy, you could make the ps4pro topless and eliminate or reduce the noise.

GREAT thing is that going ps4pro topless does not void the warranty (no stickers to break)

I would not suggest doing this on a ps4slim, due all the wires the top covers.

The top cover does not "protect anything" meaning there is not any wire that can be snagged, unlike on a topless ps4slim.

Actually, more air, more noise. That is always the case. I suspect you meant "the more free area, the less the noise". Velocity plays a bigger factor in mechanically generated noise than volume does, most of the time. Less restriction, more free area, means lower velocities, which means less noise.

You of course can also have harmonics & vibration issues , faster spinning motors usually present more sound & harmonics issues in general, however, that typically isn't an issue with these tiny motors.

I am from India and I just bought a PS4 Pro from the US that I'm bringing back home to India in the next week.

Just like its predecessors, PS4 Pro also works on dual voltage supply (the packaging only mentions 100V, reason for many to get confused) so all I would be needing is a conversion adaptor for the power plug, no step down transformer needed.

Now, my QUESTION is, the power cord supplied with it is an "I-SHENG IS-14A 10A 125V 1250W".

Can I plug this 125V power cord to my 240V wall socket in India? Will it damage my PS4 or the cable in any way?

Also, the power supply doesn't have a grounding pin, will this pose any problems for me?

Just buy a 240V rated cable. The 125V rated one, will work, and insulation will be more than sufficient. But you never know.

If the PSU does not have a ground pin, then what can you do. It will work, but if live touches some metal part of the case, that part will become live. And fuse will not activate.

Also, the power supply is not "dual voltage", because it does not only owrk with 2 different voltages. It works with wide range of voltages (for example fom 100V all the way to 240V, and everything in between). But it should say at what ranges of voltages it works.

It look like if you take off that metal plate, there's room for a 12mm or 15mm hard drive, if you also don't use the caddy. Just don't use that (seemingly useless) metal plate (or better yet, just trip off the area that would cover the hard drive).

So maybe 9.5mm HDD (currently, 2TB) is the limit for those who are not modders and respect warranty. But that's not those of us on this site!

hi, I am jamil from Pakistan, I want to purchase ps4 pro, i need one clarification, in pakistan, most of the electronics devices are made in china, ps4 pro as well, Does chine assembled ps4 pro is equal in quality to other one like made in u.s or cananda etc

does the middle plastic tier cover have any screws or can just simply prying would do the trick? I would like to paint the covers, wouldn't want to disassembly the whole things other than the covers only.

They each have their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of repairability. A user-replaceable hard drive with a standard/non-proprietary form factor is a huge plus though. All three devices use some form of tamper-resistant sticker or screw to discourage you from opening them up—but once you're past that, they are all straightforward to disassemble and reassemble with zero damage. No doubt if this were a 100-point scale you'd see slightly different scores, but on a simple 10-point scale they're all roughly an 8. ;)

I purchased and have been using the T9 tamper proof screwdriver for my first ps4 and it fits perfectly. I haven't taken apart a pro yet but my question is did they change the screws to T8 like the ps3s. Thanks in advance.

I just bought this PS4 Pro same one that you're tearing apart brand new in box I was able to play one day today I got up to play and it won't come on I push the button it beeps then it shuts right back off I can't hold the button down and make it go in safe mode it just doesn't do anything there either help me please I was so excited to get this now regretting it and wishing I had a got a Xbox instead

I moded mine with an external antenna so I can use it in any room in my house. Am I able to do this on the Ps4 Pro? On the wireless chip I see three antenna connects what one is used for the Bluetooth?

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